Hanson Aggregates, the last remaining dredger on the river, intends to not renew its dredging permit when it expires at the end of this year. The company mines a one-mile stretch near Gilpin.

Tom Chizmadia, senior vice president of government affairs at Lehigh Hanson Inc., informed Trib Live of the upcoming dredging cessation, noting that “the minable reserves have diminished.”

“Right now, there are not any economically permittable reserves, given the regulatory restrictions on where you can and cannot dredge,” Chizmadia said.

Industry representatives point to a decade of government regulations–including increasingly smaller permitted areas, the addition of buffer zones and a requirement to search for and avoid endangered mussels–as the cause of the industry’s downfall, while environmentalists have said the end of dredging on the Allegheny was inevitable.